Brent Budowsky

Brent Budowsky served as Legislative Assistant to U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen, responsible for commerce and intelligence matters, including one of the core drafters of the CIA Identities Law. Served as Legislative Director to Congressman Bill Alexander, then Chief Deputy Whip, House of Representatives. Currently a member of the International Advisory Council of the Intelligence Summit. Left government in 1990 for marketing and public affairs business including major corporate entertainment and talent management. He can be reached at brentbbi@webtv.net.

Brent Budowsky: Sanders is a leader; Trump is a showman, which is why Sanders’s crowds are larger than Trump’s, Sanders’s polls are stronger than Trump’s, and Sanders will leave large footprints while Trump will leave a legacy as politically profound as “The Apprentice.”

Brent Budowsky: The prospect of this new era of new thinking from a new populism of a new left, following the Gilded Age corruptions of the last financial crash and the revolving door corruptions of Washington, is driving the surprise surge for Sanders and posing the dramatic test for Clinton.

Brent Budowsky: It is not acceptable to fail to provide effective and sufficient ground troops. Nor is it acceptable to be dependent on Iranian-supported Shiite militia that wages sectarian conflict against Sunnis.

Brent Budowsky: Bush’s two-day implosion of confusion about his position on the Iraq War, which he may or may not get right on his third try, will do severe and lasting damage to his presidential prospects.

Brent Budowsky: American liberalism is at the peak of its power during presidential elections, and nothing better dramatizes the resurgent liberal answer to the conservative challenge than the words and teachings of Pope Francis, the most admired public figure in America and throughout the world.

Brent Budowsky: What was striking in Indiana and Arkansas — and across America — was how the business community joined rights advocates and many Main Street voters supporting the simple justice of equal rights for gays.

Brent Budowsky: Clinton is making political reform one of the cornerstone issues in her campaign for the White House. She has begun a frontal assault against the widely unpopular Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case.

Brent Budowsky: Walker, Giuliani and Republicans like them do not understand this: True patriotism is not quoting scripture, waving the flag, praising the Constitution and speaking of American exceptionalism while playing a politics of bigotry and hate that violates everything America stands for.

Brent Budowsky: The great opportunity for Clinton is to become the first woman president while also becoming a liberal Ronald Reagan: a conviction politician who stands for progressivism, a competent chief executive who believes in governing and a skilled negotiator with opponents at home and leaders abroad.

The Body Politic

Dave Zirin: She is our Jordan. She is our Jim Brown. She is our Babe Ruth, calling his shots. She is no longer content to dodge bullets, but understands how to stop them. Serena is that rare athlete who has not only mastered her sport. She’s harnessed it.